By Roy Hezron
Five rolls of bhang were recovered from students returning to school after the recent mid-term break in Vihiga High School in Vihiga County after the school Principal sought screening services from the Nyanza Region K-9 Police Unit; formerly known as the Police Dog Unit.
According to a recent tweet by the National Police Service official twitter handle dated May 31 2022, unidentified yellow tablets which were concealed inside pages of an exercise book, packets of pancake, cans of peanut butter and baked soya beans were also recovered from students during the search.
“In what could be described as a new found partnership between schools and the National Police Service, students returning to Vihiga High School after the mid-term holidays got a surprise visit from the Nyanza Region K-9 team, formerly the Police Dog Unit,” read the tweet from the National Police Service.
It added: “This followed an invitation by the School Principal in his efforts to enhance and complement the capacity of the school’s security personnel in screening drugs, contrabands and other dangerous instruments that could be smuggled into the school.”
The police search happened after the physical search was conducted to students and according to the National Police Service, the search by the four-legged ‘officers’ under the command of the Deputy Nyanza Regional K-9 officer, IP Ezekiel Njagi retrieved drugs and contraband items from unlikely places.
“Not even restricted food items could pass beyond our efficient and highly trained K-9 dogs,” added the tweet.
Cases of school fires, which have been on the rise in the recent past, have been attributed to the increasing cases of indiscipline among students in schools which have made a number of rogue students resort to burning schools to have their way.
In a report released by the Ministry of Education last year 2021 in November, 302 students were arrested over the burning of schools in 2021 with 126 learners being apprehended between November 1 and 11 of the same year, with the remaining arrests recorded from January 1 to October 30th.
41 students were arraigned for arson and destruction of property while the other cases at that time were being handled by school disciplinary committees.
The report which was signed by the Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. George Magoha revealed that drug abuse, congestion and communication breakdown between students and school managers were to blame for the unrest.
According to the National Police Service, the K-9 Police team is most visible to those travelling in the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) where a section of the dog-wielding police officers have consistently provided efficient screening services to travellers, and the Unit is decentralized across counties to provide efficient services in security management.
